Parental communication deviance and schizophrenia: A cross-cultural comparison of Mexican- and Anglo-Americans.

Levels of parental communication deviance (CD), as measured on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), were compared among families of schizophrenic patients in two culturally distinct groups. Spanish-speaking Mexican-American parents of schizophrenics completed the TAT in their native language, and CD was coded from their stories by a Spanish-speaking rater. Mexican-American parents had levels of CD that were nearly identical to those of a carefully matched sample of English-speaking Anglo-American parents. Factor scores that measure distinct subtypes of CD also did not differ across groups. The data suggest that levels of CD, despite discriminating between parents of schizophrenics and nonschizophrenics, do not vary across different languages and cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global attentional deviance as a marker of risk for schizophrenia: Specificity and predictive validity.

Evaluated global attentional deficits as possible childhood markers of schizophrenia. Performance deviance was assessed across a continuous performance test, an attention span task, and the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). 63 children of schizophrenic parents, 43 children of parents with affective disorders, and 100 children of normal parents were tested when the children were 7–12 yrs old. A subgroup of Ss at risk for schizophrenia displayed extreme global deviance across attentional measures. Only a small number of Ss at risk for affective disorders and normal comparison Ss showed similar extreme attentional deficits. The global attentional deficits measured at these early ages were related to behavioral disturbances (behavior was assessed in 3–6 mo intervals since 1971) in young adulthood for Ss at risk for schizophrenia, but not for Ss in the affective risk group or in the normal comparison group. It is concluded that global attentional deficits have considerable specificity for predicting behavioral problems thought to be precursors of schizophrenia or schizophrenia-related disorders. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of child deviance: Roles of child behavior, parental depression, and marital satisfaction.

Investigated relationships among parental adjustment, parental perception of child behavior, and an independent measure of child behavior, using 61 consecutive referrals to a university psychology clinic of 5–14 yr olds with home or school problems. 61 mothers (41 of whom were married) and 41 fathers completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Marital Adjustment Test, and the Conners Parent Rating Scale. Children's teachers completed the Conners Teacher Rating Scale. Mothers' ratings of their children's behavior were significantly correlated with teachers' ratings, but fathers' ratings were not. A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that teachers' ratings accounted for the greatest amount of variance in the prediction of mothers' ratings of child externalizing problems, followed by maternal depression. Results confirm earlier findings of a relation of maternal depression to maternal perception of child externalizing behavior problems but indicate a stronger correlation between maternal ratings and independent measures of child behavior. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term stability of communication deviance.

Communication deviance (CD), forms of communication that are not bizarrely thought disordered but are hard to follow and that make difficult the consensual sharing of attention and meaning, has been hypothesized as a nonspecific contributor of rearing parents to psychopathology of offspring, including schizophrenia. This hypothesis, or an alternative of genetic transmission, would gain plausibility if CD has long-term stability. CD was evaluated, using tape-recorded and reliably scored Rorschachs in 158 Finnish adoptees, and retested after a median interval of 11 years. Adolescent CD was not stably correlated with follow-up CD. However, initial CD at a mean age of 32 and follow-up CD were significantly correlated. Gender, genetic risk for schizophrenia, and DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) psychiatric diagnoses had no effect on adult CD stability. CD appears to be a stable, traitlike feature of adult but not adolescent functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social, emotional, and intellectual behavior at school among children at high risk for schizophrenia.

Four classroom teachers rated the school behavior of 44 12–17 yr olds of schizophrenic parents and 70 Ss of normal parents as part of an ongoing high-risk study. The ratings were made by teachers using the Pupil Rating Form and the Hahnemann High School Behavior Rating Scale. Ss of schizophrenic parents showed greater interpersonal disharmony, less scholastic motivation, more emotional instability, and lower intelligence than the control Ss, but the difference in introversion was not significant. Two of the 4 Ss with 2 schizophrenic parents had extremely low ratings for scholastic motivation, harmony, emotional stability, and intelligence and a 3rd was rated extremely low on emotional stability, but none of them was extremely introverted. On the basis of the results and a preliminary examination of intermediate outcomes (early hospitalization or psychological treatment after the initial school assessments), it is concluded that disharmony, emotional instability, and low intelligence are the early markers for vulnerability to schizophrenia worthy of most attention. The surprising absence of introverted behavior among Ss of schizophrenic parents indicates that introversion—when it is observed—may best be construed not as a static typology of preschizophrenic character but as a dynamic phase in a process of coping and retreat that precedes schizophrenic breakdown, sometimes by many years. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed emotion and communication deviance in the families of schizophrenics.

Investigated the relation between 2 measures of family communication, intrafamilial expressed emotion (EE) and communication deviance (CD). Ss were 205 relatives of recently episodic schizophrenics from 3 samples collected in the US and the UK. Ss were rated according to their participation in a family interview. Findings indicate that high-EE relatives had higher levels of CD than did low-EE relatives in all 3 samples. When high-EE relatives were subdivided according to the specific EE attitude they manifested (i.e., criticism and/or emotional overinvolvement), those relatives showing emotionally overinvolved attitudes exhibited the highest levels of CD and were consistently separable from low-EE relatives on the CD measure. The potential impact that high-EE/high-CD environments may have on schizophrenic patients is discussed. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of contextual risk, impulsivity, and parental knowledge in the development of adolescent antisocial behavior.

The present study (a) tests main and moderational effects of neighborhood and family risk, and adolescent impulsivity on the development of male and female antisocial behavior (ASB) and (b) examines the extent to which these effects work indirectly through parental knowledge. Adolescents (N = 4,597; 51% male) reported on informal social control in their neighborhoods, their family types, and impulsivity at age 12, and on parental monitoring and ASB at ages 13 and 15 years. Neighborhoods were further defined as risk and nonrisk in economic deprivation by census-level data. Main effects of neighborhood risk, single parenthood, and impulsivity on ASB were found for male and female adolescents. For female adolescents, impulsivity interacted with neighborhood economic deprivation and with family type in the prediction of parental knowledge. Impulsivity and contextual risk factors in part increased adolescent ASB through decreasing parental knowledge. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory, attention, and communication disturbances in schizophrenia.

The authors hypothesized that schizophrenic communication disturbances reflect specific cognitive deficits in the areas of working memory and attention. They examined the cognitive correlates of communication disturbances, as measured by linguistic reference performance, in schizophrenic (n?=?48), bipolar (n?=?24), and nonpsychiatric control (n?=?23) individuals. Reference performance ratings in the schizophrenic patients were associated with scores on tests of working memory and attention and were not related to performance on concept formation or verbal fluency tests. In contrast, in the bipolar and nonpsychiatric individuals, reference performance was associated with concept formation and verbal fluency test scores but was not related to performance on tests of working memory. Implications with respect to the processes underlying schizophrenic communication disturbances are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gentic risk for schizophrenia, birthweight, and cerebral ventricular enlargement.

Recent work by Silverton, Finello, Mednick, and F. Schulsinger (1985) indicates a relation between low birthweight and cerebral ventricular enlargement, as assessed in adulthood, in a group of subjects at risk for schizophrenia. In the present study, we examined the role of low birthweight in ventricular enlargement and tested the hypothesis that low birth weight interacts with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia in its association with enlarged ventricles. This study reports on 34 subjects of the Danish high-risk-for-schizophrenia prospective study. Birthweight, paternal schizophrenia spectrum disorder (PSSD), and an interaction term for these two variables were analyzed in a regression with ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) as the dependent variable. As in Silverton et al. (1985), birthweight significantly contributed to the variance in VBR. Although PSSD did not significantly contribute to the variance in VBR, there was a significant interaction effect of birthweight and PSSD on VBR. Results were discussed in terms of a diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting and antisocial behavior: A model of the relationship between adolescent self-disclosure, parental closeness, parental control, and adolescent antisocial behavior.

This study used data collected from a sample of 840 Italian adolescents (418 boys; M age = 12.58) and their parents (657 mothers; M age = 43.78) to explore the relations between parenting, adolescent self-disclosure, and antisocial behavior. In the hypothesized model, parenting practices (e.g., parental monitoring and control) have direct effects on parental knowledge and antisocial behavior. Parenting style (e.g., parent–child closeness), on the other hand, is directly related to adolescent self-disclosure, which in turn is positively related to parental knowledge and negatively related to adolescents’ antisocial behavior. A structural equation model, which incorporated data from parents and adolescents, largely supported the hypothesized model. Gender-specific models also found some gender differences among adolescents and parents, as the hypothesized model adequately fit the subsample of mothers but not fathers. Mothers’ closeness to girls predicted their knowledge of their daughters’ behavior; mothers’ control predicted boys’ antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family risk factors, parental depression, and psychopathology in offspring.

Associations between parents' poor marital adjustment, parent–child discord, affectionless control, low family cohesion, and parental divorce and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) diagnoses were explored in a study of 220 offspring of parents with and without major depression. Family risk factors were more prevalent among offspring of depressed parents. Risk factors were associated with major depression and any diagnosis for children of nondepressed parents; they were associated with conduct disorder for both groups. Parental depression was more important than family risk factors in models predicting major depression, anxiety disorders, and any diagnosis. Both parental depression and family risk factors were significant predictors of conduct disorder. Implications for the etiology of psychopathology and for analytic strategies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and their common correlates: A review and meta-analysis.

Interpersonal deviance (ID) and organizational deviance (OD) are highly correlated (R. S. Dalal, 2005). This, together with other empirical and theoretical evidence, calls into question the separability of ID and OD. As a further investigation into their separability, relationships among ID, OD, and their common correlates were meta-analyzed. ID and OD were highly correlated (p = .62) but had differential relationships with key Big Five variables and organizational citizenship behaviors, which lends support to the separability of ID and OD. Whether the R. J. Bennett and S. L. Robinson (2000) instrument was used moderated some relationships. ID and OD exhibited their strongest (negative) relationships with organizational citizenship, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Correlations with organizational justice were small to moderate, and correlations with demographic variables were generally negligible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall of parental behavior by acute depressives, remitted depressives, and nondepressives.

The goal of this study was to determine whether depressives' recall of parental behavior is a stable characteristic that persists even during asymptomatic periods. Recall of parental behavior was measured in a large community sample that was followed for one year. Four groups of subjects were formed according to their depression status: depressed, remitted depressed who had a history of depression but were not depressed during the study, cases who became depressed during the follow-up period, and never-depressed subjects. The results were generally consistent with the hypothesis that recalling one's parents as having been rejecting and unloving is not a stable personality characteristic of depression-prone persons. The currently depressed subjects differed as expected from the nondepressed subjects; however, the remitted depressed, regardless of how many past episodes of depression they had, did not differ from the nondepressed controls in their recall of parental behavior. The comparison of controls and cases resulted in an unexpected and difficult-to-interpret Sex?×?Group interaction. The implication of these findings for cognitive theories of depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual behavior and nonsexual deviance: A sibling study of their relationship.

Analyzed the correlation of nonsexual deviance and physical, sexual behavior using a sibling design. Hypothesized that both types of behavior are partly determined by a latent trait of deviance proneness, d. In two separate studies—one based on an Oklahoma dataset of college students and their siblings, and the other, on the Adolescent Sexuality Project ({adsex}) dataset of high-school students and their siblings in Tallahassee, Florida—found a strong relationship between relatively early sexual intimacy and nonsexual forms of deviance. Siblings were more alike than chance in deviance and in physical sexual behavior. Most critical for the model, there was also an association between one sibling's sexual intimacy with a partner and the other's deviance. Using {lisrel}, tested the latent-trait model statistically and accepted it as consistent with the obtained correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in toddlers' behavior and parental reaction.

Observed 12 families, each consisting of 1 toddler-aged child, a mother, and a father in their own homes. 6 children were boys, and 6 were girls. Boys played with blocks and manipulated objects significantly more than girls. Girls asked for help, played with dolls, danced, and dressed up significantly more than boys. Both parents gave girls more praise and more criticism than boys, and both parents joined boys' play more often than girls' play. However, boys were left to play alone more than girls. Comparisons between parents' answers on a child-rearing questionnaire were made with the home observations. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamics of social interactive behavior: A computerized procedure for analyzing trends, patterns, and sequences.

Describes procedures that use detailed and sequential observations of monkey mother-infant interactive behavior to make a coordinated analysis of development. Computer programs provide for (1) organizing the behavioral data into frequency tables and developmental curves, (2) making analyses of variance and trends comparing groups of Ss, and (3) determining statistically the patterns of simultaneous behavior and the sequences of patterns that characterize individual Ss and groups. This treatment of a large volume of data is economically feasible. The computer programs have been generalized for application in various kinds of behavioral research. Analyses provide bases in concrete behavioral terms for deriving hypotheses about the dynamics of social behavior and development. This approach promises a more complete and developmental view of complex interactive processes. Greater sophistication in the use of computer capabilities and in the application of mathematical models and treatments can increase its effectiveness. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognitions.

To investigate the role of affect and cognitions in predicting organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and workplace deviance behavior (WDB), data were collected from 149 registered nurses and their coworkers. Job affect was associated more strongly than were job cognitions with OCB directed at individuals, whereas job cognitions correlated more strongly than did job affect with OCB directed at the organization. With respect to WDB, job cognitions played a more important role in prediction when job affect was represented by 2 general mood variables (positive and negative affect). When discrete emotions were used to represent job affect, however, job affect played as important a role as job cognition variables, strongly suggesting the importance of considering discrete emotions in job affect research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)